Scout
08-29-2007, 10:55 AM
Doug McConachie, The StarPhoenix
Published: Wednesday, August 29, 2007
The Saskatoon Blades will have to improve their on-ice results likely by 50 per cent this season to meet coach Lorne Molleken's expectations of home-ice advantage in a first-round playoff series.
The Blades have to jump from their 27 wins in the 2006-07 season (which left them last in their 11-team conference) to at least 40 victories this year if they want to finish in the top four of the Eastern Conference.
With a playoff format change this year -- the top eight teams will be ranked according to finish for the playoffs, rather than teams playing the opening round in their own division -- 40 wins is a legitimate benchmark to aim for. Last year, the Calgary Hitmen, with 39 victories, would have been fourth. Two seasons back, when the Blades finished first in the East Division with 41 victories, it still would have only been good enough for fourth overall.
With teams now having a second chance for a victory via the shootout, anything less than 40 is not a guarantee and there have been some seasons, such as 1996-97 -- when there were 10 teams in the conference -- when Red Deer's 43 wins would have left them fifth overall and opening the playoffs on the road.
"That's the goal . . . finish top four," Molleken has said prior to his team's training camp, which opens Thursday in Martensville.
"Our expectations are way higher," fourth-year and longest-serving Blade Justin McCrae said. "The guys are all a year older . . . we've got a lot more experience and it seems like (we're all) a little more comfortable."
With 206 regular season games under his belt, the 19-year-old centre says team chemistry plays a huge role in success or failure, and "we've got a great bunch of guys back."
"We've got confidence in ourselves and (now) it's just go out and do it."
For McCrae, it was too long a summer, having not made the playoffs. When the season ends in March, "guys are a little hungrier," he said.
When the Blades open camp Thursday at the Martensville Arena they'll have eight goaltenders, 22 defencemen, 41 forwards and two veteran 20-year-olds who head home for their final year of hockey -- Chris Durand, who spent 31/2 years in Seattle before being traded to Prince George half way through last year, and Michael Kaye, who spent three years in Lethbridge and then last season in Tri-Cities.
Neither Durand, a centre, nor Kaye, a right-winger, are big goal scorers, but both bring size and ruggedness. Molleken thinks he can pair them up with McCrae and 18-year-old Colton Gillies to create the nucleus for two solid top lines.
Europeans Jyri Niemi on the blueline and Robert Brandis up front will be expected to provide solid support in their first year in the WHL, and the Blades have a solid group of returning youngsters.
The test will be in how well 17-year-olds such as Gaelan Patterson and 18-year-olds including Derek Hulak, Walker Wintoneak, Dustin Cameron and Troy Crowley step up. Hulak had 18 goals in a split season with Regina and Saskatoon and is considered as pure a goal scorer as there is. Garrett Klotz and Kenton Dulle, who split last season between Vancouver and the Blades, will have to put some pucks in the net as 19-year-olds, although Klotz doubles as the team enforcer.
Published: Wednesday, August 29, 2007
The Saskatoon Blades will have to improve their on-ice results likely by 50 per cent this season to meet coach Lorne Molleken's expectations of home-ice advantage in a first-round playoff series.
The Blades have to jump from their 27 wins in the 2006-07 season (which left them last in their 11-team conference) to at least 40 victories this year if they want to finish in the top four of the Eastern Conference.
With a playoff format change this year -- the top eight teams will be ranked according to finish for the playoffs, rather than teams playing the opening round in their own division -- 40 wins is a legitimate benchmark to aim for. Last year, the Calgary Hitmen, with 39 victories, would have been fourth. Two seasons back, when the Blades finished first in the East Division with 41 victories, it still would have only been good enough for fourth overall.
With teams now having a second chance for a victory via the shootout, anything less than 40 is not a guarantee and there have been some seasons, such as 1996-97 -- when there were 10 teams in the conference -- when Red Deer's 43 wins would have left them fifth overall and opening the playoffs on the road.
"That's the goal . . . finish top four," Molleken has said prior to his team's training camp, which opens Thursday in Martensville.
"Our expectations are way higher," fourth-year and longest-serving Blade Justin McCrae said. "The guys are all a year older . . . we've got a lot more experience and it seems like (we're all) a little more comfortable."
With 206 regular season games under his belt, the 19-year-old centre says team chemistry plays a huge role in success or failure, and "we've got a great bunch of guys back."
"We've got confidence in ourselves and (now) it's just go out and do it."
For McCrae, it was too long a summer, having not made the playoffs. When the season ends in March, "guys are a little hungrier," he said.
When the Blades open camp Thursday at the Martensville Arena they'll have eight goaltenders, 22 defencemen, 41 forwards and two veteran 20-year-olds who head home for their final year of hockey -- Chris Durand, who spent 31/2 years in Seattle before being traded to Prince George half way through last year, and Michael Kaye, who spent three years in Lethbridge and then last season in Tri-Cities.
Neither Durand, a centre, nor Kaye, a right-winger, are big goal scorers, but both bring size and ruggedness. Molleken thinks he can pair them up with McCrae and 18-year-old Colton Gillies to create the nucleus for two solid top lines.
Europeans Jyri Niemi on the blueline and Robert Brandis up front will be expected to provide solid support in their first year in the WHL, and the Blades have a solid group of returning youngsters.
The test will be in how well 17-year-olds such as Gaelan Patterson and 18-year-olds including Derek Hulak, Walker Wintoneak, Dustin Cameron and Troy Crowley step up. Hulak had 18 goals in a split season with Regina and Saskatoon and is considered as pure a goal scorer as there is. Garrett Klotz and Kenton Dulle, who split last season between Vancouver and the Blades, will have to put some pucks in the net as 19-year-olds, although Klotz doubles as the team enforcer.